When the internet first got kicking, some scholars of democracy and civil society thought that online discussions could create what they called a "conversational democracy”: an ongoing town hall without bricks and mortar.

How to understand "kicking" in the context above? I learned from OED that

kicking
adjective
(informal) full of life and excitement: The club was really kicking last night.

I'd never made the connection to a fetus; I'd always thought of "alive and kicking" as having a connotation of (still!) alive. That old Simple Minds song makes a bit more sense, then: "Stay until your love is / Alive and kicking..."
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MT_HeadJun 21 '11 at 10:11